Projector: G.I. Joe - Retaliation

Projector: G.I. Joe – Retaliation

Hello, and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, the battle between the Joes and Cobra continues in the star-studded action sequel G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Continuing from The Rise of Cobra's end, unbeknownst to the Joes, Cobra master of disguise Zartan has taken the place of U.S. President, played by Jonathan Pryce, and is working on freeing their captured leader Cobra Commander. To this end, he organises an attack on the G.I. Joes in Pakistan and frames them to remove anyone who could potentially stop Cobra. Now, a few surviving Joes, led by Roadblock, played by Dwayne Johnson, must discover the conspiracy, avenge their fallen comrades and save the world. The film has been of much speculation and controversy since it was delayed last summer in the wake of Hasbro bomb Battleship, for an 8-month 3D post-conversion and re-shoots – but is this the disaster that many people have been predicting?

Not quite – but it does have it's fair share of problems. One thing that I can say for it is that it feels far closer to the spirit of G.I. Joe than the previous entry did – gone are the accelerator suits that make that film feel like a close ancestor to Transformers and there's less of the excessively CGI action scenes since Stephen Sommers is no longer in charge. The film most prominently shows off it's troubled production in it's opening minutes, getting off to a bad start with a pre-title sequence supposedly in Korea but turns out to be an idiotic training scene completely unrelated to the plot and some obvious re-shoots to expand Channing Tatum's role – which definitely isn't much, contrary to some reports. But the right feel is there – yes, the dialogue is corny macho rubbish (but honestly did you expect anything else from G.I. Joe) and there's an emphasis on brawns and heavy artillery that is exactly the right fit for this franchise, and things do get better. This is arguably the best Hasbro film because it takes a no-nonsense approach to the source material – it feels like you're watching an episode of the old cartoon series with a lot of action and eye-popping effects. The only real difference is there are heavy fatalities, but this has been downplayed, especially from it's surprisingly violent predecessor, making it also feel like a video game – and that's not surprising given we see Johnson and Tatum playing a first-person shooter early on. The biggest reason for this new feel is the change in director from Stephen Sommers to Jon M. Chu, who clearly has a passion for the franchise and has tried his best to try and fix where the earlier movie went wrong.

The obvious re-tooling is a formidable task, especially given that Chu not only has to keep continuity from the first one but build towards future sequels of his own. Much of the original cast do not return, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Christopher Eccelston, which means that Cobra Commander is re-cast in a new, more faithful mask trying to forget his backstory, and Destro is quickly written out. Byung-hun Lee and Ray Park return as Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes respectively, given expanded roles this time around, and there's a significant retcon two-thirds of the way through the film to their history. Jonathan Pryce and Channing Tatum are the two other returnees, although the latter doesn't stick around long due to other commitments. It's clear what Chu is trying to do is keep what worked and throw out everything else and whilst that's commendable, it's also exhausting. Worse, the severely limited selection of Joes on display means that it feels like a lot of the B-listers coming to the rescue, especially given the relative lack of any returning cast on their side, forcing the filmmakers to add new star power to compensate. Given how much story it has to deal with, both removing characters and adding new ones, the film ends up buckling under it's own weight in the middle because there is just so much plotting that not even the de-fibs of regular action scenes can solve that. If you haven't seen The Rise of Cobra, you will likely want to before seeing this, because although the film is clearly trying to get a new audience, it's references to established continuity means that people just coming into this entry will likely be completely lost at sea.

Even with many characters MIA, there's still a huge wealth of characters to contend with. Dwayne Johnson, the new lead as Roadblock, carries the film on his bulky shoulders but given the huge ensemble, there are long stretches where he's not on-screen or not given enough to do, nor is his signature self-depreciating humour given room to shine. Also new is Bruce Willis, but his role his basically an extended cameo that sees him half-engaged as usual, complete with misogynistic wisecracks. Ray Stevenson's Firefly also pops up here and there, but he's also under-utilised in the shuffle. Of the new Joes, former Wonder Woman Adrianne Palicki's Lady Jaye tries her hardest to get above the level of eye candy and does convince as an action girl, but Willis' jabs towards her seems to cruelly prevent her from this, and D.J. Cotrona's Flint doesn't really get any character beyond a generic block of muscle. In fact, the person with the most character is Jonathan Pryce's villain, who is having so much fun getting to ham it up and play Angry Birds that he brightens up the screen whenever he appears – I think I was rooting for Cobra purely on the basis of him! Whilst everyone in the ensembles gets at least a moment to shine, if there wasn't lots of recognisable faces in the cast you could easily forget which one is which on some occasions – but you're not really here for characters, you're here for action, which Retaliation offers plenty of.

The biggest contributors of this are Byung-hun Lee and Ray Park, who continue to be enjoyable as the duelling ninja brothers, and although their big fight isn't quite on the level of the first, they certainly end up stealing the movie because whenever the film cuts to them, you know a fight is soon to follow. Their plotline for the first-two thirds of the film sees them set aside so the film gets action injections periodically, and they spend so much time away from the main cast in Washington that it almost feels like they're in a completely different movie entirely. That movie may well be a sequel to The Man with the Iron Fists given RZA's odd appearance as a blind master, who adds another ninja fighter to the mix, Jinx, who is solely introduced fighting Snakes Eyes and then becoming his sidekick with no backstory whatsoever! But these martial arts scenes add a welcome dose of testosterone and excitement in the second half that the film's been sorely lacking, including the standout mountain fight that seems to be the sole reason the film is in 3D. This is Chu's first action movie, having directed dance flicks previously, and you can tell his history because of the choreography in these ninja fights – however, you can also tell he hasn't directed action before because amongst the mistakes he makes is cross-cutting. Chu hasn't quite got a handle on the editing in some scenes, editing scenes into pieces where they should have stayed together and at times making what's going on a little confusing. If you're wondering how much the 3D adds to the film and whether it was worth it, to be honest, aside from the mountain sequences, a lot of the film still felt flat to me for the most part, and it seems like both an excuse to delay the film and make money off it in the process.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation is exactly what you will probably want or expect from it – and given the last entry, that by itself is an improvement. That said, this is a great big, over-stuffed spectacle that is has a whole host of problems, at least half of which are caused by trying to fix earlier mistakes. Running at least 15 minutes too long and with too characters battling not just for good and evil but screentime, this is definitely not by any stretch a “good” movie, but coming in with quite low expectations, I did find it fun in an undemanding way if you're the mood to blow things up. Maybe now that they're free of baggage, a second sequel could be even better, but I wouldn't lose any sleep if they didn't make another either.

I'm Mathew Buck, fading out.